As unexpected cultural phenomena go, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have got to top the charts.
After conquering comics and cartoons, their meteoric rise culminated in a live-action
motion picture trilogy that was an unprecedented success. So, what became of the actors who
shell shocked the world?
"I'd like to invite you all in, but I really don't really have anything to offer you guys
except frozen pizza."
"Let's go for it!"
Donatello was voiced by 80's child star and contemporary Wizard of Peculiarity Corey Feldman.
If you haven't kept up with Feldman the last few years, keep your arms and legs inside
the car, because this gets turbulent.
The Turtles franchise marked a sort of turning point for Feldman. The days of leading roles
were fading into the middle distance. Gremlins and Goonies were pretty well behind him. Direct-to-video
Lost Boys sequels would be his only constant companions.
"There's a nightcrawler who's created a new designer drug. The only problem is it's not
a drug. It's vampire blood."
Unfortunately, this also came at the tail end of a contentious legal battle with his
parents, who apparently spent everything the actor made before he was emancipated at age
15.
The '90s unfortunately seemed to hit Feldman like a train. His first marriage dissolved
when he was 22, and his career took a hard slide. Lately, Feldman has mostly been associated
with his often bizarre shots at starting a third act music career, as well as his support
for child sex abuse advocacy groups. Some of his more recent acting work has been a
return to the well of ooze: he provided the voice of Slash on the 2013 animated Ninja
Turtles series.
Adolescence is hard on most people, and especially difficult for reptilian genetic abominations.
Hence, Raphael.
"Why? Why oh. I don't know. 'Cause I wanted to redecorate. A couple throw pillows, a TV
news reporter — what do you think."
The Turtles' moody, red-clad brother was played by character actor Josh Pais, who gets extra
points for not only performing the voice of Raph, but also doing the body work inside
of the 70-pound turtle costume, making him the only one of the lead performers to do
both.
Even if you're not familiar with his name, you've probably seen Pais' face; the hard-working
actor has more than 90 acting credits to his name. Some of his more recognizable roles
have been multi-episode arcs on both Law and Order and Law and Order: SVU, his time as
Stu Feldman on Ray Donovan, and his difficult-to-forget turn as the ill-fated gynecologist in the
2007 horror film Teeth.
"Where do they come up with this stuff?"
Lately, Pais has been working as the founder and lead instructor of the Committed Impulse
acting schools in New York and Los Angeles.
Michelangelo: comic relief, pizza aficionado, and masterful wielder of nunchucks. Mikey
was voiced by child actor Robbie Rist in the 1990 motion picture.
"Nice night."
"Mm-hmm."
"Pizza dude's got 30 seconds."
"Mm-hmm."
A lot of Rist's career has been spent as sort of a pop culture curse — he was hired on
as Cousin Oliver for what wound up being the last season of The Brady Bunch, played Booger
in the ill-fated Revenge of the Nerds TV show, which was cancelled before airing; and voiced
Rocky in the Blues Brothers animated series, which was also cancelled before airing.
Luckily, recent years have been kinder to 54-year-old Rist. His voice acting career
has taken off, and he now has almost 150 credits to his name. You might know his voice from
Doc McStuffins, where he plays Stuffy, or from the 2013 Ninja Turtles series, in which
he portrays Mondo Gecko. Even better, Rist was intrinsic to the creation of the Sharknado
series, in which he not only played Robbie the bus driver, but also wrote the theme music.
Speaking of Revenge of the Nerds, did you know that Takashi played the voice of Leonardo?
Brian Tochi, born Brian Tochihara, got his start in acting at a young age. One of his
first credits was on an episode of the original Star Trek series, where he played a member
of a group of killer children with an ice cream obsession. It made him a natural fit
for the role of Leonardo, in a member of a group of killer teenagers with a pizza obsession.
As with a few other Turtles alums, he's plenty active on the convention circuit, meeting
up with fans and signing autographs like a champ.
"Maybe somebody ought to tell him we're the good guys."
"Any thoughts?"
"I only got one thought, this guy knows where Splinter is."
Kevin Clash was the voice actor and lead puppeteer behind Splinter, the Turtles' giant rodent
mentor. For more than thirty years, he was the voice and hands behind iconic Sesame Street
characters like Hoots the Owl and small, red tickle enthusiast Elmo. His work even inspired
a documentary about his life, 2011's Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Life.
A quick glance at the actor's credits over the last few years shows an uncharacteristic
gap between jobs, and the reason is kind of a giant bummer. Starting in 2012, some pretty
nasty allegations against Clash began popping up. Two men came forward accusing Clash of
sexual misconduct. The first accuser recanted, and all other cases were thrown out, but the
damage was done. Clash resigned from his work on Sesame Street, and only returned to the
Muppet life recently, working on Brian Henson's 2018 adult puppet comedy The Happytime Murders.
It's not easy to be cool. It's even harder to be cool compared to a quartet of martial
arts Cowabunga monsters that are standing right next to you. Yet somehow, Casey Jones
always pulls it off.
"You guys mind telling me what you're doing with my little green friend over there? Oh,
who is the babe?"
In 1990's Ninja Turtles, Jones is played by Canadian actor Elias Koteas. Koteas had a
hot streak in the 80's and 90's, landing plenty of roles, including his two best known performances
as Casey Jones in the first and third Turtles pictures and as Thomas Dagget, the lead in
the first Prophecy movie.
Koteas' star faded somewhat during the new millennium, but he still works pretty regularly.
Recently, he had a stellar run on NBC's Chicago franchise of programs playing undercover detective
Alvin Olinsky on Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, and the short-lived ugly stepsibling
of the bunch, Chicago Justice.
In the pantheon of fiction, there are supporting characters who become as necessary as the
protagonists themselves. Luke needed R2 to talk to machines. Will Turner needed Jack
Sparrow to keep the franchise running a decade past its sell-by date. And the Turtles? The
Turtles needed April, presumably because she had a job and was willing to shell out the
money for pizza every night of the week.
"It talks?"
"It is really quite simple, Ms. O'Neil."
"And he knows my name, perfect."
In the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, April was played by American actress
Judith Hoag. A relative unknown at the time, Hoag was reportedly less than thrilled with
the direction of the first film, and she's acknowledged that her personal gripes may
have been what led to her never being approached to join the sequel.
You can't keep a good reporter down, though. Hoag has gone on to maintain a healthy acting
career with more than a hundred credits over thirty-plus years. Recently, she had a recurring
role on NBC's reboot of Nashville playing Tandy Hampton.
Even so, April remains probably her best known role, with Hoag admitting that she's still
recognized for the part three or four times a week.
April O'Neil has had a fascinating life. Starting out as a computer programmer in the comics,
she's gone on to work as a reporter, a vigilante, and (surprise) the fifth ninja turtle. With
such a wide range of ever-changing vocations, it only makes sense that her face would change
too.
When it came time for the inevitable sequel to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the producers
decided to go with a new actress to play April O'Neil. This time, they went with Paige Turco,
an actress who'd been working on soap operas like All My Children and Guiding Light up
to that point. Turco managed to hold onto the part for both the second movie, Secret
of the Ooze and the third one, Turtles in Time.
Since then, Turco has had a successful career in television. She had a season-long run on
NYPD Blue back in the 90s playing Officer Abby Sullivan, as well as an 18-episode stint
on Party of Five. You can most recently catch her on CW's The 100 as Dr. Abigail Griffin.
Tokka and Rahzar may not have been the most well-received characters in the Turtles mythos,
with most fans responding to their presence with a resolute "Where's Bebop and Rocksteady?"
Even so, the performer behind them is a powerhouse. Frank Welker is a pop culture Panzer tank
who's been tearing through your childhood memories for decades without you even knowing
it. His filmography is so long it has its own Wikipedia page. No, we're not exaggerating.
God help you if you try to load the 72-year-old voice actor's IMDb page; it takes up more
bandwidth than Netflix.
Welker got his start playing Fred on Scooby-Doo way back in 1969. Not content to simply play
one iconic character, he went on to voice Brain, Claw, and the cat on Inspector Gadget;
over twenty different Transformers; Slimer and Ray in The Real Ghostbusters; Santa's
Little Helper on The Simpsons; Nibbler on Futurama; a whole pile of Animaniacs; Abu,
Rajah, and the Cave of Wonders in Aladdin; and, no kidding, over 800 other roles.
"Believe it or not, I was Smokey the Bear. 'Only you can prevent forest fires.'"
Extra crazy: he's still playing Fred on Scooby-Doo after five decades. That's what you call being
committed to your work.
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